Wie geht es Ihnen? As the Germans say. Today I’m here to talk about 2 German-language films, both Oscar winners, that are superb and well worth the effort of subtitles.
The German Democratic Republic, as East Germany liked to style itself, met its demise in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but I imagine that its ghosts still haunt its streets and its survivors. In The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen), we get a look at life in the GDR and the corrosive effects…
Sebastian Koch) writes what today we’d call “politically correct” plays that are popular with the public and the Politburo; nothing to rattle the status quo. His girlfriend Christa (Martina Gedeck) acts in the plays and is a well-known celebrity in East Berlin. Among their artsy social group are a few “undesirables” who question the East German state and maintain contacts in the West. In a spot of bureaucratic decision-making that would be funny if the outcome not so sad, the Stasi decides that Dreyman and Christa need to be surveilled. Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe), a senior bureaucrat/field agent/teacher at the Stasi School for Aspiring Surveillors decides to take on the task himself. Though he initiates the surveillance with the best of GDR intentions, he soon finds himself seduced by the life of these artists, leading him to, among other things, cover for their indiscretions. As you know it must, his simple joy in sharing their days (a fine feature of this movie is how you don’t begrudge him it, even though you know it’s extremely CREEPY) is repaid by sadness when his cover-up unravels and events get beyond his control. No one is unscarred by the experience.
One’s first thought on seeing the movie is amazement that such a society could even have existed — I want to say, didn’t you folks read 1984? But of course, they didn’t, probably couldn’t have, and wouldn’t have recognized themselves if they did. Beyond the totalitarian aspects, the sheer stupidity of the bureaucracy, which I’m sure began to undermine its very principles within minutes of being established, ensured its demise, although I imagine that is only evident in hindsight.
A second thought is how that society left everyone, seemingly, compromised. Honesty could not be a virture in such a world, and was seldom used as the coin of the realm. Artists, neighbors, friends, family, bureaucrats, officials, Polizei, all corrupted by the necessity to not stand out, to not rock the boat, to agree with the most outrageous and damaging things.
And third, could a man like Wiesler really exist? A friend said no, the Stasi were uniformly evil, but I find that hard to believe. Who’s to say he wasn’t swept up in the web of lies that each life was made of, then caught by his desire to do his job well, then finally confronted with the awfulness of it? I can’t in my heart believe that “all” of anyone, anywhere are uniformly evil or, for that matter, good. When a society so diminishes the individual, it’s difficult without walking in their shoes to condemn the petty wrongs that people do to survive. Not the extreme people, the torturers, the sadistic types — they exisit in every society, although the old USSR and GDR I’m sure gave them some fine career opportunities. I mean the day-to-day compromises people made with their own morality, to get bread on the table, to keep a brother or lover out of jail, to keep going another day. We’d all like to think that we’d be different, we’d be out there resisting, going against the grain, but would we?
I hope we never have to find out. Meanwhile, this movie is SO good and well deserved the Academy Award it was given in February. It will give you a lot to think about.
On DVD, a whole other set of Germans appear in Nowhere in Africa, which won the 2002 Best Foreign Language Oscar. It’s the story of a family of German Jews who move to Kenya ahead of the horrors to come. The handsome father, Walter (Merab Ninidze) goes first to Africa and finds work managing a rugged farm owned by English Kenyans. Then the Jewish community in Nairobi (apparently there was a large one) sponsors the wife, Jettel (Juliane Kohler) and daughter, Regina, to come. Told as the daughter’s memoir, it is beautiful, and heartbreaking, and a really good story.
Conflict arises because the father knows they are better off anywhere but Germany, and even though he was a lawyer in Breslau and they seemed quite well to do and had a lovely social life (all reeled by in the first few minutes), he was happy to have his family with him and to work with his hands and learn African (or whatever they spoke) and to be kind and grateful for the refuge they’d found, no matter how meager. He also has a small bit of wonder for Africa, which translated to the girl, who has a large bit. But the mother (who was very pretty) was used to her nice things and being done for, and she is spittin’ pissed about the dirt and the poor accommodations and sort of, “this too shall pass, we’ll be home next week” — like she was on a subpar cruise to the Caribbean — determined never to accept Kenya as a home. Meanwhile, the kid takes to Africa like a fish to water, as kids are wont to do. She has a foot in each world (and Lea Kurka is an amazing little actress).
[Caution: what follows if pretty spoilerific, so if you intend to see and want to be surprised, don’t read on]
And then, THEN, the Brits round up the family because they’re German, missing the not-so-subtle distinction that they’re Jewish REFUGEES from Germany, but eventually (and seemingly quite civilizedly) that gets ironed out, the father joins the Brit army, and the mother gets all Isak Dinesen on us and goes sort of native, taking over the new (slightly improved) farm that she’s found them by flirting (or more) with a Brit soldier while they were interned in a swanky Nairobi hotel (the women and children — God love those Brits). She learns African, keeps the farm in motion while Papa is in the Army, and eventually for all intents and purposes becomes African, in the way Isak Dinesen seemed to. She blossomed in the new country, found her footing — in a way she never, ever expected was possible.
Eventually, and this is when I started crying, Papa gets out of the Army, the war is over, Hitler is vanquished (and thank the Gods for that), and Papa has applied to return to Germany as a judge/lawyer to help start the new German government. Cried, I tell you. So he is ready now to go back to “civilized” life in Germany — whatever that meant in 1946 — but the wife wants to stay in Africa, where she’s found a sort of freedom and acceptance. And yes, both their families were killed (cried), and the wife is afraid (justifiably so) of the people back in Germany (cried), but the husband feels it’s his/their duty to help rebuild their homeland (Germany — even after what it dished out to them and their relatives, cried). Again, a lot to think about.
So grab a Beck’s or some weiss Wein and some popcorn or a wurst, and enjoy these stories from our Deutsche Freunde.